Tuesday, July 24, 2012

It's good to see Tony Hawk games back on the right track. Now they just need to travel a bit further down the line.

I got into the series back on the original Xbox with Tony
Hawk Pro Skater 4. The next several years, I would make it a tradition to pick
up the new game as it released in October, usually lining up perfectly with
Toys 'R Us's annual buy two get one free sale. They didn't grow substantially
between each release, but I enjoyed getting back to that familiar playstyle
with new maps. That's all I really needed.

American Wasteland and Proving Ground were rough patches,
but I had no idea the series would bail so completely with the ill-conceived
board peripheral games. I championed for Activision to embrace the HD
collection route that's brought back so many last-gen titles. I envisioned one
collection being the first three Pro Skater titles (all featuring the two
minute objective-based levels), then a second collection containing #4 and the
two Underground games. At last, all Tony Hawk games would be available on the
360, and the world would be in balance.

Well, it didn't work out quite that way, but it's still great
to finally have some real Tony Hawk action again. Granted, it shouldn't be trumpeted
as the second coming, but it helps fill a void.

Like I said, I really got into the series with number four,
which left behind the small, timed arenas in favor of spacious, well-crafted,
over-the-top stages. I played some of Pro Skater 3, but disliked the time
restraint. So it was ironic that the saving grace of the ugly, juttery American
Wasteland was the return of the classic mode. It gave me a new appreciation of
those bite-sized levels. So now with Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD, a mash-up of the
first 2 Tony Hawk games, I feel right at home. I just never would say I was
good at it.

There are seven levels, only one available at the start, and
completing a set number of goals on a level will unlock the next stage. It's
not a cumulative unlocking, however, so completing more tasks on earlier stages
won't speed up the level-unlocking process. But the more goals you complete,
the more money you'll earn to upgrade your character with higher stats, more
special tricks and alternate boards. But these unlocks only apply to the single
skater. You'll have to play through the whole game time and again if you want
to max out everyone, including your PANXE (Xbox avatar). That's what we call
artificially inflating the game content, an age-old gaming tradition. I would
have preferred more stages, as this selection feels too light, and I fear its
set up just to be bombarded with DLC.

It is a bit difficult to go back to this time before all the
expansive tricks from later in the series. I can actually handle not having the
combo-extending Revert, which is planned as DLC (talk about game changing... if
it's usable in these old stages, high scores will no longer be a challenge). And,
sure, it'd be nice if I could control the camera, so I could actually see a
collectible that's slightly out of my eyeline before attempting a manic jump. But
what I really miss is the wall-plant, so I'll stop splattering violently
against walls. Oh, and the ability to level out your skater when they take a
crazy arc off a halfpipe. Fancy flatland tricks are missed, as is the ability
to switch lip & grinds tricks (without an ollie in between). Also, you can
only equip 5 special tricks... what's up with that??

But for older players, those that played the game in its
earliest days, this will fit you like a comfy old pair of jeans. Perhaps it
won't feel exactly like you remember, but the nostalgic memories will come
rushing back. It's like playing Super Mario Bros after a decade away... it's
easy to remember where all the gaps and goals are. But that familiarity is
puzzling to me. As I mentioned, I never played the first two Tony Hawk games.
So why do all of these levels seem so very familiar? I know a couple of them
have definitely been around in HD form before, in American Wasteland. Have the
others been recycled too?

Another disadvantage I had going into the game, having not
played the original games, I had never before encountered the "Big Drop"
indicator. If you aren't holding down the A button when you land, you will
crash (though if you can land in a grind, you'll be fine). It's not very
intuitive, as it will often pop up a split-second before impact. This must be something they did away with
pretty early in the series, as later games featured many areas that would
launch you to ludicrous heights, from which you could land with your spine
totally unfazed.

Tony Hawk games never were graphical powerhouses, especially
with the character models, but the graphics here are fine. They never distract
from the game. There are the same odd random glitches that I've come to expect
from this series... weird collision problems, random sideways physics (especially
at bowl-shaped ramps), and sometimes my character will just decide to fall
down. A few times I've even had my A button stop working during gameplay on the
Hanger level. It's not my controller because it still works to navigate the
pause menu, it just decides it won't let me jump anymore until I start a new
round. It's quite inconvenient, I must say.

The lack of local multiplayer is a shocking absence. I might
have never picked up the series if I hadn't played some Graffiti Tag at my
friend's house. Now, someone else might be missing out on the franchise because
they can't play a game without the competitive pressure of Xbox Live. As it is,
I found the online multiplayer to be very unstable. I only got into two games,
across more than a dozen attempts. Even then, everything moved sluggishly. And
the second game never actually ended... when the time ran out, everyone just
got locked in place.

Other modes include a pellet-hunting mode called Hawkman (I
didn't like it when I tried it in Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, and I still don't
like it here), a survival mode that requires you continue doing tricks or your
head will explode, or just an untimed practice mode. Also, if you complete
every goal on every level, you will be given even more challenging
"Projectives". Beat all of those for a sizable gamerscore
achievement.

Like the recent Goldeneye remake (another Activision joint),
it's obvious this game was not designed to ignite interest from new players,
but rather to rekindle the flame of old fans. There is no tutorial mode to help
newcomers. There is a map in the pause menu to help find all the goals, but
it's not dynamic so even completed goals are still left marked to add confusion.
You'll also have to dig deep in the menu system to find a trick list... there
are goals that require a specific trick, but it won't list how to perform it. There's
no create-a-character, or create-a-skatepark, or even create-a-custom-music-tracklist
(Much to-do has been made about the pared down tracklist. None of it really
appeals to me, so I just run my own music off my hard drive).

All and all, it's fun, and worth your time... IF you're a
hardcore Tony Hawk fan. They should have named it Pro Skater Lite, as there's
not a lot of real game here. It's missing so much, especially to draw in a new
crowd.

2.5 out of 4 Stars.

Recommended for: The Tony Hawk Elite. Those guys putting up the
million-plus runs on these two-minute course are exactly who this game is for.

Franchise Fixes: I'm still holding out hope for a complete
THPS 4 thru Underground 2 HD Collection (not remake). If they want to
"fix" this game, however, perhaps a few free DLC levels would be in
order.

Achievements/In-Game Rewards: The vast majority of this
achievement list is for the gifted players. I only got the token few for
unlocking each level in career mode. Aside from unlocking bonus characters, and
cheats (which will disable achievements), there's not much rewarding going on.
A sick score will have to be its own reward.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat is one of the few
games exclusive to the infamous uDraw game tablet, the failed peripheral that
nearly sunk THQ. And if all the uDraw games were this bad, its failure is a
good thing.

Previous Super Hero Squad games were somewhat dull and
tedious, but adding the control scheme from Hell makes you forget all about the
boring monotony. Combat is equivalent to a strategy game, where you tell your
troops where to go and who to fire at, then you watch them do it. The
characters in this game are not well trained soldiers, and simple navigational
directions get blundered as they struggle moving around obstacles or even each
other. And when they get to the general area that you directed then to, they'll
often immediately disperse, wandering off towards random things like a
distracted toddler.

You can select a character to control individually, or the
entire crew (up to three "Squaddies") at once. Using your stylus, you
simply click a spot where you'd like them to go. Simple, yet trying to move
then offscreen is a tedious affair.You
can touch the edge of the visible area and slowly plod them along as the screen
area moves with them.

If an enemy or breakable item is on the spot where you
click, they'll attack it. Ranged characters will often move away from the target, so that they're
attacking at maximum distance. They don't seem to care that moving away puts
them in the line of fire from something else, such as the stage where there's a
GIAGANITC LASER firing down the center of the screen. Also, if the enemy
they're shooting at is knocked down, they'll be out of range, so they'll just
stand around like there's nothing to do. Any melee character you brought along
will be on his own until you manually command his buddies to rejoin the fray.
If there wasn't a way to make the A-I smart, then they should have included a
general "attack" command.

There's also no defense maneuvers at all, with the exception
of certain characters special moves that can heal or briefly block damage
(Generally, men's special moves attack, women heal. Not the most progressive
game). At least, I assume the bubbles Invisible Woman puts around her teammates
are shields. The game is also horrible at documentation.

There's no help menu, and nothing to explain what
anything is, aside from generic tutorial instruction early in the game. The
small game manual mentions the coins (or "issue sales") you pick up
in-game unlock items like upgrades and alternate costumes. Nowhere is there
anything to indicate if you have everything. Everybody has one alternate
outfit, and I think my powers are all up to level 2, but there's no list to
tell me if I should be expecting more or not. I don't even see any place to
tell me if my powers are really level two or not, the last pop-up I noticed
said "Orb Attack upgraded to level 2". I guess that's good? Who
knows.

Besides moving around Squaddies, you can activate draw
attacks with your stylus, by sketching a quick path from a character. They will
then fire a projectile attack, or melee-only characters will perform a rushing
attack. The problem is, it's only really effective if the enemies are standing
still. And most projectile attacks won't go further than the first enemy. Hope
nobody's standing in the way of the person you really want to hit.

You also have "Glyph Attacks" (I only know they're
called this because the manual says so).You can draw a circle to get an Orb that you can roll around to damage
enemies. Drawing a triangle makes a decoy to distract enemies. And an
"X" will create a bomb. Seems easy enough. Expect the game has a lot
of trouble distinguishing your attempts to draw a glyph from you just clicking
to move your characters. At least two-thirds of the time, my attempt to draw
something is misconstrued as a movement command.

The only other abilities you have are one-time-use
Earthquake and Zipper-Rift power-ups. The Earthquake is the only control I had
no problem using. Simply shaking the tablet back and forth activates this
powerful attack. The Zipper-Rift is the opposite story. It's activated by
placing your thumb and finger on the tablet and performing an
"un-pinching" motion. In theory. I only got it to work easily once.
Every other time, I struggled for nearly a minute trying to get it to work. By
then, most of the enemies were gone. It is an absolutely idiotic concept to
make you suddenly use your fingers when playing the game. It should have been
activated simply by clicking the zipper icon. Keep. It. Simple. This game has
the worst controls I've ever encountered, and would have benefited greatly from
just being another standard controller-based brawler.

I have to give some credit to the writer for actually making
the storyline specific to the uDraw tablet. Instead of just slapping a game
with hideous tablet controls, the entire storyline revolves around Dr. Doom
discovering "you" helping the Super Hero Squad with your "power
pen". He plans to cross into your dimension to steal the pen. It's a lot
of filler, as his minions gather supplies he needs, and when he achieves his
goal, it's a very brief, unfulfilling fight. There's also some inane sub-plot
in the cutscenes with Dr. Doom's mom bothering hm. It has absolutely no bearing
on the story whatsoever. You never fight her. She's just there to annoy her
son. That's the entire game: brief, annoying, and unfulfilling. The entire
game, including achievement hunting, is completed under five hours.

Graphically, it's blasé. Same Super Hero Squad graphics
(which were never impressive) in much smaller play areas. There's some amusing
voice acting, I assume it's the same actors from the cartoon. A lot of repetition
in the dialog, of course, but I'm amused by Squirrel Girl walking around
saying, "Have nuts, will travel!" And I did laugh at dimwit Hulk's
answer to a certain riddle.

There's other poor programming oversights: Being
disconnected from Xbox Live while playing resulted in being immediately kicked
back to the main menu; There's no sound during the credits, no music or
anything; And there's no explanation to the Heroic Feats. I figured out the
icons for finding the comic stash, and not dying during a panel. But what's
that third icon mean? And does accomplishing these feats reward you with
anything at all?

All in all, this poorly programmed mess is a total
kick-in-the-groin to those of us who love Marvel Comics characters.

1 out of 4 Stars

Recommended for: fans of Squirrel Girl. This is her first
video game appearance. I wouldn't recommend actually playing it, but having it
there in your SG shrine would be its best use.

Franchise fixes: since the uDraw tablet has been
discontinued, the SHS games should go back to the old formula, just focus on
making them more fun to play.

Achievement/In-Game Rewards - As I mentioned, this is a
quick 1000 achievement points for whoever wants to put up with the shoddy
control scheme. Aside from a single alternate costume for each character, the game
lacks much reward for its players.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition is the classic Frogger
gameplay, decked out in new skins to fit your graphic tastes. You can choose
how you like your Frogger action to look: the retro giant pixel look, neon
colors filling the screen, or even graphics based on other classic Konami
franchises. You can also choose from a selection of tunes to cross traffic to, with
clever frog puns for their titles. Finally, choose between control style of
single hop, or continuous hopping (while pressing a direction, not actually constant
movement, thankfully), and you're ready for the old fashion Frogger gameplay
you've known and loved for the past 30 years.

And I do believe they made the game easier. I was never all
that great at Frogger. Looking at my achievements on the original XBLA port of Frogger,
it seems I never beat level 2. I got to level 4 on Hyper, and boy was I proud
of myself. But I played a round from the old XBLA title to see if I had just
gotten better over the years, but as soon as I started up that game I saw the
difference. It had more obstacles, all moving noticeably faster. It's rather
misleading that this new version is called "Hyper" when it is much
more leisurely paced.

The timer is your greatest threat. While playing, if the
time hits zero, you lose. Not just the life you're on, but it is game over
regardless of how many Froggers you have in reserve. That's quite harsh. And
also the reason I didn't make it past level 4.

The core game mechanics haven't changed, so veteran
Froggerites will ease right in. It may take newcomers a while to get used to
the infamous collision detection. There's still that invisible block around the
cars on the road, and jumping into a seemingly safe spot too close to the rear
of a car causes death. It's definitely, undeniably Frogger.

And really, that's what it comes down to... if you've enjoy
classic Frogger, you'll enjoy this colorful remix. But there's not much here to
draw in Frogger haters.

Sure, there are a few new modes.

There are some paint-by-numbers missions to draw a picture
while avoiding traffic and not touching unmarked squares. Not very difficult;
once you paint a spot, it stayed that way even if you touch it again. The timer
is the only thing really you have to keep in mind.

There's a multiplayer Battle Royale mode, where you actually
use a button! Your objective is to kill/outlast the other players. This is
accomplished by either grabbing the lady frog power-up, giving you a few
moments to squash your fellow frogs, or by picking up colored flies which
grants you powers to screw with other players, leaving them more susceptible to
oncoming traffic. It's not very deep, as there are no defensive powers. It's
all just a matter of getting to the power-ups first.

Other modes include steering two frogs to safety simultaneously,
trying to colors as many tiles as possible, and even a challenge mode that makes
you duplicate feats you may have done before, but on a much stricter timer.

There are a few poor decisions with the menu navigations,
leading to unnecessary annoyances. Challenge mode does not offer a
"next" option after you complete a challenge, instead making you go
back to the challenge selection screen, where you must scroll through them all
starting with the first challenge, to find where you left off. There's no
"random" for the music selection, so you're stuck with the same song
repeating over and over while you're in a level. The unlockable movies are
hidden in the Help & Options submenu, rather than being out where they
could be accessed as an actual feature. Small things like this can really add
up, and a little more work on the user interface could have easily circumvented
these issues.

This game really tries to be the equivalent of the recent Pac-Man
Championship Edition games, but there's just not enough content to hold your
interest for long. The problem is that its content is pretty much all available
from the get-go. Pac-Man CE had you unlock things as you played through it all,
which kept you coming back for more. If Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition rewarded
you for getting so far on each stage with each skin, there'd be more incentive
to stick around longer.

You can see and do pretty much everything this game has to
offer in an hour or two. Then it's just a matter of how often you'd like to go
back to the classic mode, as if you were playing original Frogger. Still, it's
probably the best version of the old game yet.

2.5 out of 4 stars.

Recommended For: gamers who love these classic arcade titles,
and who are keeping the Konami Code alive!

Franchise fixes: Honestly, I've never been convinced that
Frogger is very viable in today's market. His original 2-d static-screen platforming
still works, but it really hasn't grown, nor is there a call for it to do so.
This game adds some flourishes and superficial extras, but that's really as far
as I can see this franchise going without sacrificing Frogger's core and
becoming the horrible crap that his last-gen 3D games have been.

Achievements/In-Game Rewards: The only unlockables in the
game are the Frogger movies (featuring "Frogger
In Love" shorts, reminiscent of Pac-Man cutscenes) and a couple skins for classic
mode. The Achievement list is easy pickings for any Frogger fan.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Dead Island is one of those games that you just want to keep
playing a little more, and a little more, and a little more...

It's not a well-written masterpiece, by any means. The
cut-scenes range from "What is going on?? Who is that guy??" to a
head-slapping "WTF?!? Did I miss a plot point somewhere??" The main characters
are flat and have no emotional arcs or any real involvement in the storyline.
They're just there to kill things and be bossed around by everyone they meet.

But the combat is visceral and exciting. Once you get the
basics of combat down and find yourself a hearty weapon, the thrill of killing
hordes of zombies is undeniable. A well-timed expertly aimed swing of a sharp
blade can decapitate a zombie instantly. A savage swing of a blunt instrument
can reduce an enemy's bowling arm to a floppy, useless appendage. And as your
character is upgraded, you can unlock a head stomp that will kill any
knocked-down foe, even "special" zombies.

Add in modified weaponry with fire and electrical upgrades,
and cruise around with a full four-player team? You're in for a night of a fun,
unstoppable zombie smackdown rampage.

And it looks great! There's an impressive number of
character models. That's not to say you won't occasionally see two identical
brain-biters charging at you, but there is a very nice variety of zombies and
survivors. And thanks to the first-person perspective, the models are huge and
all the bloody details look fantastic in high definition! And while the main characters
have personalities composed of tired clichés, their visual design is top-notch,
each looking distinct and unique to the game. Too bad they don't offer some
different outfits; zombie killing is always more exciting with a little
dress-up.

The game can easily be compared to Left 4 Dead or Dead
Rising, but it distinguishes itself as more of a gritty brawler, and somewhat
casual open-world action game that just happens to have many, many zombies. I
call it a brawler, because 98% of the combat will be close-quarters. There are
guns, which only become available later in the game, but they're not nearly as
effective against the undead. The limited amount of ammo you can carry makes
firearms only reasonable choice against human opponents who are shooting back.
Yes, it wouldn't be a zombie game without human bad guys spoiling the
"let's stick together" atmosphere.

I wish there were some more hand-to-hand fighting techniques,
though it would sacrifice some of the realism if you were busting out wrestling
moves on zombies ala Dead Rising. One character, Sam, has a Charge move, which
essentially knocks over anybody he runs into. But otherwise, if you're without
a weapon you can punch zombies with your bare fists or you can kick them for
minor damage. Kicking can knockdown most enemies, and they'll take more damage
while on the ground (more importantly, they can't fight back until they return
to their feet). One thing you have to be extremely aware of: your stamina. If
you played the game upon release, kicking took no stamina, so you always had
that as a last resort when you tire yourself from swinging your giant axe
around. But the developers have since patched the game making kicks use
stamina, like everything else.

The game is filled with very interesting choices made by the
developers. Most of the time I'm totally unsure if they were conscious
decisions, or if they were merely oversights, or perhaps they just ran out of
time/budget. For instance, there are almost no ambush moments. In a game like
this you expect certain dark corners to be hiding a zombie ready to lurch at
you as the game intentionally directs you into its path. Or as you go into a
building to retrieve a quest item, common gaming knowledge tells me to expect
bad guys to show up behind me to try and stop me. Maybe a big betrayal will
occur when I take this item back to the quest giver and I'll have to fight him
for it. But these things don't really happen. It's bizarre, and initially it
seems disappointing. But then again, it seems to fuel the uniqueness of the
game. It's trying to be less of a "game" and add more realism to the
desperate struggle for survival rather than adding a lot of convenient gameplay
clichés. Even the couple "boss battles" are hardly such... they
absorb extra damage, but really not all that much.

And I'm not sure I've played a game with less penalty for
dying. You do lose some of your money... five or ten percent, maybe? But you'll
regain that after looting a few corpses. And you'll usually start within about
30 feet of where you died (Unless you're wandering... I've noticed that if I've
veered away from the course of an active quest, my respawn will be a lot closer
to the quest objective than I was). You won't loses your inventory, and slain
enemies are still dead. It's quite generous and helps keep the fun going. No
rage-quitting here.

The game is absolutely meant to be played co-op. It's much
more fun and exciting to have help around, and even some impromptu zombie-killing
competitions. And since the cutscenes all involve the entire group, it makes
more sense if you're actually playing with a full crew (NPCs also refer to you
in the plural sense). What's impressive is that you're given free reign around
the very large maps. You're limited to being in the same area map (such as Act
1's resort area, or Act 3's jungle setting) as the host, but these things are
huge! Everyone can be off completing separate quests, or teaming up to power
through them one-at-a-time. The only time you need to all be together is to
fast travel to other locations, to enter buildings/sewers that have their own
play area, and at certain points in main storyline quests. But don't believe
the original packaging... this game is online (or system link) co-op only. No
local co-op options, which is really disappointing. This game is best shared
with a buddy.

Leveling up gives you access to a wealth of
character-specific upgrades. These allow you to do more damage with specific
weapon types; use less stamina; gain more XP, and so on. Each character also
has a Rage ability. When activated, your vision goes stylistically black &
white, with enemies glowing red. You have unlimited attacking ability while
Rage is active, using your character's weapon specialty to deadly effect.

The missions are limited in scope, almost all are fetch quests, with a few escort or clear-the-area missions thrown in for good measure. But the size of the five maps gives you a good variety to travel around, even if you are doing essentially the same things over and over.

There is a strange decision to make the "storage locker" be a character that's heavily involved in the storyline. At times, she's off being part of a mission, meaning you have no access to your storage! You won't even meet up with her until the end of Act 1, which is several hours into the game. So, if you're on a second playthrough, you can't access your saved loot until you reach that point of the game. Bizarre choice.

There are some bugs with the game. Aside from the occasional
lag you might experience online, there's not too much that's incredibly bothersome.
However, there is one mission where you have to escort "Jin" to a
bunker. I played the mission on three separate playthoughs, and every single
time, she glitched out. Twice, she got knocked down and ended up with her head
in the sand like an ostrich. The other time, she just stopped walking for no
reason. I had to reload a checkpoint and it proceeded without hitch from there.

Overall, I had an incredibly fun time with this game, so it
deserves my highest recommendation. I played so much of it when it came out, I
had to stop myself to give other games a chance. And when I recently got into
it again, to join a friend on his playthough, it quickly became an obsession
again. I can't wait until they make the sequel!

Franchise fixes: Couch co-op would be nice. Customizable
characters would be a huge bonus. More weapon mods, with power ratings listed
on the description. Just more of everything would make it a bigger and better
game. And I'd like to see a scenery change so this island doesn't just get
rehashed.

Achievements/In-Game Rewards - I got the full 1000 core
achievement points for this game, thanks to a fun list. A bit of grinding is
offset by a variety of specific tasks, such as setting 10 zombies on fire at
once, or getting 10 headshots in a row. Apart from the regular RPG-type
upgrades, there's not much else as far as in-game rewards.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

It's amazing how much Lollipop Chainsaw feels like
Grasshopper Manufacture's previous game, Shadows Of The Damned.

They appear quite different on the surface: The main
protagonists are different ages, genders, and attitudes; Damned is a shooter,
Lollipop is (mostly) a combo-heavy hack'n'slash (more reminicent of
Grasshopper's No More Heroes); Lollipop is filled with bright, candy colored
visuals, Damned... not so much.

However, on closer inspection, the similarities are obvious:
Damned hero Garcia Hotspur is a Demon Hunter, Lollipop's Juliet is a Zombie
Hunter; They each have a chatty sidekick that's mostly inanimate; Damned is a
battle through Hell, In Lollipop, Hell comes to Earth. The shop system is
practically identical, the levels equally straightforward, and game designer
Suda 51 injects the same "WTF?!?" brand of humor.

When coming up with game ideas, could they not decide on which
characters, settings and gameplay mechanics to use, so they decided to just
make two games? Is Lollipop considered a spiritual sequel to last year's
Damned? Whatever the reason, I'm truly happy with the end product. And if
Grasshopper keeps making new IPs, I hope it ultimately leads to some mega-Suda-51-crossover-smackdown
game.

Lollipop Chainsaw is the story of cheerleader & expert
zombie hunter Juliet Starling, who arrives at school one morning to find the
undead filling the halls. Her boyfriend, Nick, is victim of a zombie attack and
ends up a decapitated head dangling off Juliet's waist. Together with Juliet's
zombie-stomping family (though they don't actually provide much direct help),
they will fight the hordes through six stages, complete with the standard boss
battles.

The combat system is a mix of light pom-pom attacks and
strong chainsaw moves, with the requisite dodging suitable for an agile
cheerleader. These attacks can be bolstered by using gold coins (called medals)
won in combat to buy powerful combos. As you progress through the storyline, an
upgrade for your chainsaw will be presented to you, allowing your chainsaw to be
used as a gun. Seriously (This also makes me wishful for a sequel to
Bulletwitch). You will also gain the
ability to use Nick's head in a number of ways, though it's limited to
one-time-use "Nick Tickets" that are rarely found, but available for
purchase in the store. Unfortunately, using a Nick Ticket activates a roulette,
and if you aren't good at stopping the spin where you'd like, you might end up activating
a less-helpful Nick ability.

Levels are designed to leave little room for exploration,
sending you through on a linear path. Boss battles at the end of each stage are
a mix of active combat and button prompts.

Graphics are colorful and appropriately sparkly, but the
designs of the characters and backgrounds aren't very memorable. Same with the
animation; it works well, but just seems like it's been recycled from a number
of other games. The sole exception to the mediocrity is Juliet herself. She
obviously received full attention in the character design and animation stages.
The game rests on her playability, and it truly shines. As does her voice
acting. Veteran voice actress Tara Strong does a remarkable job bringing Juliet
to life. She's supplied with some highly amusing dialog as well. Her brief conversations
with Nick about his favorite color and if he wants to have a baby are downright
hilarious.

I do have a few quibbles with the decisions made for the
gameplay... What is the obsession with making me actively cut through a door??
That concept stopped being interesting two console generations ago. It was a
big annoyance in games like Spider-Man Edge of Time, and they fixed it for The
Amazing Spider-Man. When will Grasshopper stop relying on such an archaic "gameplay"
extender? If there's a door I need to kick open or chainsaw through, let me
press a button once and then watch Juliet take care of the rest on her own. I'm
not in danger of being attack or dying if I fail to get through in time, so
there's no reason for strenuous activity when I could better use this moment to
get a drink.

There's also a "Sparkle Hunter" bonus that pops up
whenever you kill 3 or more zombies with one move (or if using the gun, within
a certain time... I guess? It doesn't seem to be well defined). When this happens
the screen turns bright pink and with rainbows and glitter and such, as it
shows you cutting through those zombies and everything else disappears for a moment.
You also get bonus Platinum Medals, used for unlocking concept art, music, and
costumes for Juliet. My problem with this is that is stops the action too
often. Aside from the fact that I often get hit as it returns to normal because
if the disorientation, but if you're good at this game, you'll be seeing this so
often it becomes quite an annoyance. A simple pop-up announcing your multikill,
without interrupting your game flow, would be so much less intrusive.

I would have liked to see less linear game progress. After you finish the first stage, it shows you all the bosses on the map, but will only let you play them in order. There's no real reason for this. They could have provided you with the upgrades and story dialog between stages, regardless of what order you chose. Instead, you're unnecessarily stuck with the order they give you.

Aside from that, there's an occasional problem with the
camera, and at times it seems like Juliet isn't doing the combo you're telling
her to do (it couldn't possibly be a fault on my end!!). But that's stuff
pretty standard troubles that unfortunately I've gotten used to in games.

The game does feature an impressive number of unlockable costumes
for Juliet, though they cost a lot of platinum medals, so you'll be grinding a
lot to afford them. There's alternate cheerleader outfits, incredibly skimpy
bikinis, and some cosplay costumes from what I'm told are Japanese cultural
icons. The American-inspired ones, such as one based on Ash from the Evil Dead
series, were (so far) strictly pre-order bonuses. Too bad, because Ash seems to
me to be the most directly related to the gameplay.

Some people may take issue with how short the game is: Six
Stages, plus a prologue. You can run through it in four to five hours. It almost
feels designed like a twin-stick shooter, equivalent to something like Deathsmiles.
You'll be replaying stages to grind out
medals to unlock everything. Perhaps this should have been marketed at a more
budget price? Sixty dollars seems steep for this amount of game and its unimpressive
secondary designs. $40 would have been a good starting point. Or perhaps it
could have made an impact with $5 episodic stages?

Lollipop Chainsaw provided some good times, and a few great
laughs. But apart from Juliet herself, the game has a bit of a cranked-out
feeling.

Also... crazy stereotypical characterization aside, why doesn't
Juliet's father, the supposed bad-ass head zombie hunter, actually do anything
helpful? Maybe they're planning some Dad DLC to explain what he was up to while
Juliet was actually fighting things. Though I'd prefer Sniper Sister missions.
Then again, both those things would lack Juliet which is the best part of the
game, so maybe that type of DLC isn't such a good idea.

3 out of 4 stars.

Recommended for: fans of combo-heavy Hack & Slash
gameplay, though waiting for a price drop would be beneficial.

Franchise fixes: Since I mentioned it, I would like to see a
full-fledged cross-over game featuring Juliet in other character's game worlds.
It would break up the monotony of the zombies.

Achievements/In-Game rewards: A rather dull list of
do-everything, collect-all-stuffs, get-high-scores. No avatar awards or other
such unlockables. The multitudes of costumes for Juliet are about all to really
strive for.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Activision seems to have yet another strategy to get gamers
to keep their games, rather than selling them off right away. This attempt to
circumvent the used game market involves doling out special content slowly. And
I think it wasn't planned out very well, as it seems designed to actually hurt
the all-important first week sales.

Prototype 2 & The Amazing Spider-Man games released with
essentially locked content.

Prototype has RADNET: Individually released challenges that
awards prizes - avatar items for Xbox 360 users, exclusive themes for PS3
owners. Starting a week after release, they would dole out a new challenge pack
once a week.

Spider-Man has spider-symbols hidden around its open world
city map. Finding these will reward you with a spiffy alternate costume to
wear. Each of these symbols only becomes available after a certain date.

My question is, why are they punishing early adopters of
their games? If I buy a new game, I'm (hopefully) excited about it and rush
home to play it and eagerly play through it as soon as possible. Had I had this
extra content available from the get-go, I would have enjoyed trying it out.
But once I finished the experience, I move on to something new. Personally, I'm
the type to keep my games, so I can replay anything I get the urge to
experience again. But hiding content behind a time lock appears designed simply
to annoy me, the eager consumer. I'm not sure I want to go back to those games
that crippled my experience in such a way.

And, it's true, you can mess with your console's clock
settings to make it think that it's August to get all your Spider-Man goodies
now. But akin to rewarding cheaters for finding a way to break your system.

Presumably, this whole procedure is designed to get
consumers to keep their games in their collections, rather than trading them
into used game stores while the value is at its apex. But realistically, it
will drive the informed consumer to wait until all the content is available
before purchasing it, at which point the price has probably dropped. In fact,
in today's market, very few games don't reach the $20 mark within six months of
release; whether it's part of a sale or a permanent price cut.

So, if I have to wait until August (two months after
release) to get all the Amazing Spider-Man costumes, maybe I'll just keep
waiting until I can get it really cheap, right? And if everybody hold off on
buying it upon release, the price will plummet really fast as panicked
retailers try to scrape this pariah of a game off their shelves. That doesn't
seem like a winning marketing strategy.

Circumventing the used game market is a difficult task, to
be sure. Most attempts have a greater risk of alienating your first-runconsumers. But punishing early adopters is
essentially what is happening here. Those are the people that they need to be
rewarding.

Instead, why not have these bonuses be unlocked for free the
first week of release, perhaps as an automatic reward for just starting up the
game? Procrastinating players would have to complete tasks to unlock them
later, or maybe just purchase them as DLC. It's not a perfect solution, of
course... they'd probably need to make the unlock part of an in-game download
so players can't use the clock-cheat to unlock the costumes. It'd also be a
problem to recode that part if the game was delayed. And what if you ordered a
game from an online retailer that took more than a week to ship your package?

The system is absolutely flawed. It needs to be closely
re-examined to properly adjust who it truly is that it wants to target.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Fable Heroes is a 4-player brawler, devoid of any actual
narrative. You move from one level to the next over the playable area of
Albion. Most levels have a fork in the road, allowing you to choose how you'd
like to end the level: a boss fight or a minigame. Neither choice alters the
route of the game. You'll still play through the same handful of stages, before
unlocking "Dark Albion", which features "dark" versions of
the exact same stages for you to play through again.

- They tried an
interesting concept with one stage: Named "The Cloud", this stage was
initially locked until the player community reached a certain benchmark in earned
gold. However, it was reached within a couple days of the game's release and is
now open to play. It's an odd thing to think about… What if the game failed to
sell? This level would just be sitting there? And now that it's permanently
open there's nothing special about it. It was sort of there to punish early
adopters. Day One players weren't able to play the whole game. But they could
have helped to unlock it. A weird experiment, but ultimately short-sighted.

You have several characters to choose from: Four to start
with, a handful more to unlock as you progress through the game. You'll also
choose your three A-I teammates, if playing alone. Most are melee characters,
but there are a couple ranged fellows. You can also unlock the powerful Jack of
Blades, which features both fighting styles. Aside from one basic attack, you
have a much slower Flourish attack. You'll need to spend in-game gold to level
up your attack speed, strength and range. The dodge-roll button will be your
best friend when battles get chaotic.

You play as a wooden puppet version of "your favorite
characters from the Fable Universe". That presents a problem for me, since
I never made much of a connection with any character in the Fable games. I
liked my farty show-off create-a-character that I molded throughout each game.
That was a highlight of the Fable series, being able to be your own character,
to make choices that affect your life and your story. None of that is in this
game. They could have at least let me play as my PANSE (Xbox Avatar).

Aside from ignoring the core foundation of Fable, they seem
to have gone to great lengths to make this experience as dull as possible. Aside
from the aforementioned fork in the road at the end of the levels, the stages are
frightfully linear, as you literally walk down the street, unable to interact
with houses or backgrounds. There are no combos to your attacks, just a basic
attack and a flourish. You can purchase an upgrade to get a finishing move,
which you will have to unlock for every group of enemy types.The most exciting part of the game is
building (and keeping) your multiplier so you earn more money. Killing enemies,
or finding multiplier bonuses in treasure chests will raise your multiplier,
while getting hit or going too long without making a kill will decrease it. Of
course, it starts with a pretty low maximum until, you guessed it, you buy the
upgrades. It seems like this game was designed as a micro-transaction affair,
though thankfully the end product does not take any money beyond your initial Xbox
Marketplace transaction.

While the graphics and animation are all solid, they do lack
any special qualities. I think this again is due to the limits of the franchise
it draw upon. For me, Fable doesn't necessarily have its own recognizable art
style. It's just sort of a semi-cartoony version of historic English villages,
maybe a little steampunk thrown in here and there. And while the look of Fable
games is connected to that certain era, that historic period isn't connected
necessarily with Fable. So, this just looks like it could be any game. It's
Fable? If you say so.

The stages, besides being lackluster and linear, are too
spaced out. Groups of enemies pop out at certain areas, and in between there
are usually long stretches of road with nothing to do but break barrels for
coins or open treasure chests for mostly useless prizes like balloons that drop
a couple coins when popped (as opposed to just letting you have the coins) or
turning you into a slow-moving giant for a time. Remember how the multiplier
decreases when you aren't actively killing enemies? With these huge gaps in
between enemy groups, it's obvious the game is against you getting those high
scores.

The simplistic combat and straight-forward level designs are
not the unfriendliest part of the game, though. That award would go to the
unlocking system. Between levels, you are placed on a square game board. Your
performance on that level awards you with a number of dice rolls. To unlock an
upgrade, you must land on that tile and then spend your hard-earned gold on the
new perk. However, there are usually three upgrades on each tile, so you'll
have to land on that same space three times. But the spaces don't disappear
when you complete them, so as you near full completion, you'll be wasting your
rolls trying to land on that last elusive space.

You'll also be in charge of upgrading your A-I buddies. This
means you can work on upgrading all your characters four-at-a-time this way,
though you will probably need to give them some of your gold (by going to a
certain spot on the game map) because their take will likely be significantly
lower than your own (which also means they'll get less dice rolls to use on
upgrading).

Once a character finally purchases all of their upgrades,
they move to a special section of the board where they spend their gold on
one-time perks such as invincibility, to be used on the next played stage.
These are also governed by luck, having to land on them instead of just being
able to purchase them outright. A more user-friendly game might have just put
these tiles on the board in place of the fully-purchased upgrade tiles.
Actually, a better game might have just made a store for your characters to
pick and choose what they wanted to buy whenever they wanted!

One other thing, on a technical side... while the game
played well, the A-I characters would routinely disappear and reappear. Almost
always this would happen mid-level at a giant object you're supposed to smash
to get coins. Sometimes they won't reappear. But they'd still be there, totally
invisible, because later in the level I'd see enemies getting beat up with no
one around them. A bizarre glitch.

So, who is this game for? Sometimes it feels like it used to
be a Facebook game, other times it feels like it was being geared for Kinect
controls. It seems very much marketed to a young childhood audience, yet it's
based on a series that has been very much Mature rated so far. I know Fable 3
had a more-simplified combat system from the previous games... is this game the
ultimate goal they were heading for? Are they telling us that the upcoming
Fable: The Journey (with its lower Teen rating) is not at all intended for
long-time series fans? I just hope it's not as dreadfully dull as this game
was.

1.5 out of 4 Stars

Recommended for: Kids that aren't very picky.

Franchise fixes: This could have been a great game, it just
needs some amount of depth. It's cute, but it's not cute enough. It could be a
good brawler, but it needs something more. A story, perhaps? Unlockable combos?

Achievements/In-Game Rewards: The achievement list is nice
and varied, though you'll have to read it to know what to do, as it wants you
to use specific options in specific levels. The game even comes with a couple
nice Avatar awards: a shirt for completing the first stage, and a Jack of
Blades mask for fully upgrading the Jack of Blades character. Too bad, beyond
new characters, the in-game unlockables aren't great.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Bejeweled Blitz Live is yet another obsessively addictive
puzzle game from Popcap, available through Xbox Live Arcade. It is a stand-alone
version of the Lightning Mode from Bejeweled 3, and similar to the version of
Blitz available to play on Facebook.

This version of the sparkly gem-matching puzzle classic will
absorb your free time with the greatest of ease. The strict one-minute timer
will test just how well you can handle the pressure of a countdown. If you've
played any iteration of Bejeweled before, you'll ease right in, though the changes
may take some getting used to.

Mainly, the control scheme, while quite brilliant in its
obvious simplicity, is quite different than that of the old game. The face
buttons now indicate which direction to move the selected gem. For instance,
moving the cursor over a gem and pressing X will switch that gem with the one to
the left, the A button will move it downwards, and so on. It works marvelously,
once you get the hang of it. Though a lot of long-time Bejeweled players will
balk at this revolutionary control scheme.

Other changes include lightning gems, which are formed by
getting five gems in a row (or T or L shapes). These powerful items will
obliterate their entire row and column when detonated, usually guaranteeing a
multiplier being dropped on to the board. These multipliers, which show up
whenever a certain amount of gems are removed from the table in a single move,
are key to racking up crazy scores in such a short time.

Also new: online multiplayer. You can either go head-to-head
with one person, with both game tables on the screen at once (though you really
don't have time to be watching their board), or with up to a total of 16
players in Party Play mode. The party mode displays only your game board, but a
graph shows everyone's gamerpics as they move upwards in real time.

While these new features are great, there are a few things
missing from the features list.

If you've ever played Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, you'll
notice something's missing. The Boosts which you could purchase with in-game
currency are gone, as is the entire coin-earning system. This significantly
reduces scoring opportunities, and was an unnecessary removal. They could have
easily kept them in and simply increased the high score achievement goals to
compensate.

Another dramatic change from the free Facebook version: the
timer no longer stops while the gems cascade to fill holes. This robs you of
precious seconds while you wait to see how things are going to line up. They
likely made this change for purpose of adding Online multiplayer, so everyone
is on the same clock… but I would have preferred if everybody's clocks stopped
each time rather than never.

One other major addition was made for the XBLA version…
Twist mode. I've never played Bejeweled Twist, so I don't know how the blitz
version compares to the regular, but I'm loving it here. You have to enter a
different mindsetthan in Classic mode,
as you are rotating blocks of 4 gems at once (I recommend using the triggers
for your rotation controls in this mode). You're still matching 3 or more gems,
but you're no longer limited to only making moves that make matches. Instead of
relying on lucky drops where you can use them, you can move gems wherever you
want, one rotation at a time. I average twice the score in Twist mode than I do
in Classic. Once you get the hang of it, it is great fun. More addiction awaits
you!

Only having to commit to a minute of gameplay at a time is a
fun break in your day, though playing for an hour really burns my eyes with all
the sparkling gems, flashy effects and pulsing screen effects.

Overall, I enjoy this game quite a lot. The addition of
Twist mode really helps offset losses from the Facebook version. However, it's
value is decreased with a similar product included in the full version of
Bejeweled 3. Twist mode is a fantastic inclusion, but with only 2 modes, fans
of the series may feel a lot's missing.

3.5 out of 4 stars

Recommended for: Puzzle gamers, fanatic and casual alike, as
well as anyone wanting a game to help train their power of observation.

Franchise Future: As much as I like the game, it is a bit
short on game modes. In the future, I hope they stick with releasing full
proper versions of Bejeweled.

Achievements/In-game Rewards: Bejeweled Blitz Live come with
a pretty straight-forward list of achievements, for making gems for the first
time, to achieving certain score & level benchmarks. I played off and on
for over a year before finally ranking up to Level 50.